Czech Republic in the Eurovision Song Contest

For the Czech Republic's upcoming participation, see Czech Republic in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016.
Czech Republic

Czech Republic

Member station ČT
National selection events
Appearances
Appearances 4 (0 finals)
First appearance 2007
Best result 13th SF: 2015
Worst result Last: 2007 SF, 2009 SF
Nul points: 2009 SF
External links
Czech Republic's page at Eurovision.tv

The Czech Republic has competed at the Eurovision Song Contest four times, first taking part in 2007. On all four attempts the country failed to qualify to the final from the semi-finals, placing in the bottom two in the first three attempts.

After receiving nul points at the 2009 Contest and a lack of interest from the Czech public, ČT decided to withdraw from future contests.[1] Five years later ČT announced their return to the contest in 2015, with an internal selection being used to select their fourth Eurovision entry.[2]

As of 2015, the Czech Republic is one of only two countries, along with Andorra, to have participated in the contest and never to have featured in the final, so far. Two more countries, Luxembourg and Monaco, have never qualified from the semi-finals, but participated in Eurovision before 2004 when the semi-finals were introduced.

Early history

During the time of Czechoslovakia, Československá televize (ČST) is known to have broadcast a number of editions of the Contest in Czechoslovakia during the 1960s and 1970s.[3][4] After the dissolution of the state in 1993 the Czech Republic's partner Slovakia immediately attempted to enter the Contest, entering the contest three times between 1994 and 1998, before withdrawing.

Czech broadcaster Česká televize had originally planned to send an entry to the 2005 Contest, held in Kiev, Ukraine. However, this did not materialise for various reasons.[3] ČT again looked at sending an entry to the 2006 Contest in Athens, Greece, but failed to do so after having doubts that the country would qualify for the final.[5]

Participation

2007

Kabát performing "Malá dáma" at Helsinki

In April 2006 ČT officially confirmed their presence at the 2007 Contest in Helsinki, Finland.[6]

ČT held a national final to select the first Czech entry. Eurosong 2007 featured 10 songs, with the public voting for the winner through SMS voting. However one song was withdrawn before the show began, leaving only 9 songs to compete. The winner was rock band Kabát with the song "Malá dáma".[7] At the contest's semi-final on 10 May 2007 the Czech Republic performed 16th in the semi-final, however only received one point (which came from Estonia) from the televoters around Europe.

2008

Tereza Kerndlová performing "Have Some Fun" at Belgrade

For the 2008 Contest in Belgrade, Serbia, ČT again held a national final to select the entry for the country. 10 acts again competed for the chance to represent the Czech Republic in Serbia, with the winner of Eurosong 2008 being Tereza Kerndlová with "Have Some Fun".[8] At the second semi-final of Eurovision 2008 Kerndlová performed 8th in the running order, receiving 9 points for her performance (1 points from Turkey and Malta, 2 points from Croatia and 5 points from Macedonia), placing 18th of 19 entries, and failing once again to qualify the Czech Republic to the final.

2009

Despite placing in the bottom two twice, ČT confirmed that they would participate at the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 in Moscow, Russia. ČT decided to hold an internal selection for the artist who would represent the country at the contest in Russia, with a public vote on the song they would sing. The broadcaster chose Romani band Gipsy.cz in January 2009 to compete in Moscow – the band had previously competed in the two previous national finals, coming both times in the top three.[9] Two songs were presented to the Czech public to vote on: "Aven Romale" and "Do You Wanna".[10] After voting had concluded after 14 days, the final winner was "Aven Romale", which featured lead singer Radoslav Banga dressing-up as a super-hero character, Super Gypsy.[11]

The group performed 2nd on the night of the first semi-final of the contest, held on 12 May 2009. However the group managed to receive nul points from the 20 countries voting in the semi-final, becoming the 16th entry to achieve this result since the current voting method was introduced in 1975.

Withdrawal

On 22 July 2009 ČT officially announced their withdrawal from the 2010 Contest, stating a lack of interest from the Czech public to the contest and poor viewing figures for the shows.[1]

Return

Despite a July 2014 statement by ČT that the Czech Republic would not participate in Eurovision 2015,[12] ČT announced on 19 November 2014 that the Czech Republic would in fact participate at Eurovision 2015 with a song to be chosen by an expert panel from a field of five specially commissioned nominees.[13] The song however failed to qualify from the Semi-final. However it did give the Czech Republic their best score and placed 13th with 33 points. On 31 August 2015, ČT announced that it would participate in the 2016 edition.

Contestants

Table key
  Winner
  Second place
  Third place
  Last place
Year Artist Language Title Final Points Semi Points
2007 Kabát Czech "Malá dáma" Failed to qualify 28 1
2008 Tereza Kerndlová English "Have Some Fun" 18 9
2009 Gipsy.cz English, Romani "Aven Romale" 18 0
Did not participate from 2010 to 2014
2015 Marta Jandová & Václav Noid Bárta English "Hope Never Dies" Failed to qualify 13 33
2016 Gabriela Gunčíková English "I Stand"

Voting history

Between 2007 and 2009 and 2015,the Czech Republic's voting history was as follows:

Most points given in the grand finals only
Rank Country Points
1  Armenia 36
2  Azerbaijan 32
3  Russia 29
4  Ukraine 25
5  Serbia 17
Most points given in the semis and finals
Rank Country Points
1  Armenia 48
2  Azerbaijan 42
3  Ukraine 37
4  Serbia 26
5  Russia 21
Most points received in the semis and finals
Rank Country Points
1  Israel 8
 Poland 8
2  Macedonia 5
3  Germany 4
 San Marino 4
4  Slovenia 3
5  Croatia 2
 Malta 2

Commentators and spokespersons

Year(s) Commentator Spokesperson
2007 Kateřina Kristelová Andrea Savane
2008 Petra Šubrtová
2009 Jan Rejžek
2010 No broadcast Czech Republic did not participate
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015 Aleš Háma Daniela Písařovicová
2016 Libor Bouček

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Hondal, Victor (22 July 2009). "Czech Republic withdraws from Eurovision". esctoday.com. ESCToday. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  2. ↑ Siim, Jarmo (19 November 2014). "Czech Republic returns to Eurovision". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  3. 1 2 Bakker, Sietse (2004-12-03). "CZECH REPUBLIC WITHDRAWS". ESCToday. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
  4. ↑ Bakker, Sietse (2008-12-25). "Do you remember... Amsterdam 1970?". European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
  5. ↑ Bakker, Sietse (2005-10-06). "No Czech Republic in Athens". ESCToday. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
  6. ↑ Busa, Alexandru (2006-04-16). "'Czech Republic will join in 2007'". ESCToday. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
  7. ↑ Floras, Stella (2009-03-11). "Czech Republic: Kabat with Mala dama". ESCToday. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
  8. ↑ Schacht, Andreas (2008-01-26). "Tereza Kerndlova represents Czech colours!". European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
  9. ↑ Siim, Jarmo (2009-01-30). "Gipsy.cz competing for Czech Republic". European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
  10. ↑ Jiandani, Sanjay (2009-03-01). "Czech Republic: Listen to the songs". ESCToday. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
  11. ↑ Siim, Jarmo (2008-03-26). "Czech Republic: Gipsy with a dot". European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
  12. ↑ Jiandani, Sanjay (29 July 2014). "Czech Republic: CT will not return in Eurovison 2015". esctoday.com. ESCToday. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  13. ↑ "Czech Republic back in Eurovision". PraguePost.com. Retrieved November 21, 2014.

External links

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